Author: vaughanbell

A recently concluded confererence at London’s Institute of Psychiatry has been debating the classification and boundaries of mental illness and has been challenging the traditional views of psychiatric medicine.

There have been longstanding critics of psychiatry, notably people like R.D. Laing and Thomas Szasz, who have argued that the medical concepts of mental illness are flawed, or that they are used to unjustly silence society’s outsiders.

More recently, psychiatric classification, and particularly the separation of mental disorder into diagnoses such as ‘schizophrenia‘ and ‘bipolar disorder‘ have been challenged by mainstream psychiatrists on the basis of scientific discoveries.

For example, an editorial in May’s British Journal of Psychiatry argued that that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are on a continuum, based on genetic evidence that is increasingly showing that similar genes are found in people who receive either diagnosis.

Other criticisms, echoed at the recent London conference, have been based on the coherence of psychiatric definitions and how well they reflect the diverse experiences of people who live through mental distress.

The conference discussed how understanding the first-person conscious experience of mental illness (as opposed to, or in combination with, scientific measures) can make for a more accurate understanding, and hopefully, treatments for those in need.

This approach is known as phenomenology and was championed by a number of continental philosophers who argued that science will only ever give a partial explanation because objective measures always leave something of the ‘lived experience’ missing.

One increasingly popular view of psychosis, the reality-bending mental state that can involve hallucinations and delusions, suggests that it is not an all or nothing state as psychiatric diagnosis suggests, but a range of experiences that are distributed throughout the population.

Recent studies have typically reported that about 10-11% of the general population score about the average of psychotic patients in psychiatric wards, on measures of unusual thinking or perceptual distortion, despite not needing psychiatric help or becoming significantly distressed or disabled.

Link to details of the recent conference on ‘Phenomenology and Psychiatry for the 21st Century’.
Link to BBC News on the conference and the boundaries of madness.

ABC Radio’s In Conversation has an interview with cognitive scientist and AI researcher Professor Noel Sharkey who discusses his life, his work and the creation of robot intelligence:

“Noel Sharkey left school at 15, became a singer and took substances. It was while reflecting on the effects of an acid trip (he had taken LSD) that he began wondering about the limits of the mind. Since then he has explored the nature of machine intelligence, experimented with robotic evolution and mused on what kind of thinking is beyond computers. Professor Sharkey, from the University of Sheffield, is here for National Science Week.”

Realaudio of interview.
Link to In Conversation website.

A new glossy women’s magazine is due to launch in the UK that covers philosophy and psychology, as well as celebrity interviews and lifestyle stories.

Psychologies already exists in France, where the French version (pictured on the right) sells over 300,000 copies a month. It is hoped that UK women will be similarly intrigued by stories that discuss “what we’re like, not just what we look like”.

A write-up in The Independent claims that the magazine will be “academically rigorous”, presumably basing advice and analysis on established research.

It is clear that the magazine is not straying too far from the tried-and-tested format of women’s glossies, however, as beauty advice and celebrity interviews (Meg Ryan will be issue one’s cover girl) will still feature strongly.

Link to story from The Independent ‘Psychologies magazine: Not just a pretty face’.
Link to website of French Psychologies

September’s edition of the Fortean Times has a lead article on Edinburgh University’s Koestler Parapsychology Unit and the state of parapsychology research today.

The research centre is supported by money left in the will of controversial author Arthur Koestler, who had a long-standing interest, and some personal experience, with paranormal phenomena.

In contrast to much of the frankly dodgy science that the area attracts, the Koestler Unit conducts well-controlled scientific studies into potential psi abilities.

The article notes some interesting findings. For example, there seems to be a statistically significant effect, albeit very small in magnitude, when the results of the scientific studies on psi abilities are collated.

It also includes some insights from current and ex-parapsychological researchers on the future of the field, and whether the findings reflect genuine psi, or perhaps just some uncontrolled ‘noise’ in experimental design.

The article is only available in the print edition at the moment, but the Fortean Times put their lead articles online after a month or two, so look out for it on their website for those without copies on your local newstands.

Link to Fortean Times website.
Link to Koestler Parapsychology Unit website.

As an update to the last post, on cognitive differences between Eastern and Western societies, Richard Nisbett was on BBC All in the Mind last night to discuss his findings.

He talks about the experimental results just released, as well his wider studies which have resulted in his book The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently – And Why.

Link to All in the Mind webpage for Tuesday’s edition.
Realaudio of programme.